Notes, abstracts, papers, exams and problems of Music

Metric Concepts

• Prose: Always write forward.
• Verse: Writing with a certain measure, often structured in lines and stanzas.
• Narrative: Storytelling.
• Lyric: Expressing feelings.

How to Work with Verses

Analysis of the Form

Lines

• Measuring Lines
  • Separate Syllables: Each syllable has only one vowel sound.
  • License Application Metrics:
    • Sinalefa: Union of the last syllable of a word ending in a vowel with the first syllable of the next word beginning with a vowel.
    • Syneresis: Similar to sinalefa, but occurs within a word. A syllable with a vowel sound meets the following if it starts with a vowel to form a single syllable.
    • Umlauts: Two points are placed on top of an *i* or *u* to indicate that a diphthong should be counted as two syllables.
  • Rules for the implementation

Romanticism

1. Main Characteristics

• Chronology: 1805 (Beethoven's 3rd Symphony premiere) to 1905 (Debussy's La Mer premiere).
• Rise of Nationalism: From the latter half of the 19th century, nations sought independence from major political powers. Composers reflected this by incorporating folk elements into their work.

2. Instrumental Music

• Importance: Instrumental music was considered the most important art form due to its ability to express deep emotions without words.
• Orchestral Growth: The orchestra expanded, leading to the concept of the symphony orchestra and the construction of large concert halls to meet bourgeois demand.
• Rise of the Piano: A need for intimate music suitable for bourgeois homes led to the piano becoming the most important instrument

Romanticism

Romanticism was a cultural movement that opposed the characteristic principles of the Enlightenment. It emerged as a result of the profound social and ideological crisis of the early decades of the 19th century. The origins of Romanticism can be found in the 18th century, especially in German philosophy and culture.

Key Characteristics of Romanticism

• Irrationalism: Romanticism refused to fully explain reality through reason.
• Subjectivism: If reason has its limits, other forms of knowledge are necessary. For the Romantics, these included intuition, imagination, and instinct.
• Idealism: Romantics had a predilection for the ideal, for the absolute.
• Individualism: Romantics had an acute and painful awareness of their own personality, distinct

Romanticism

Romanticism began in the late 18th century and covered the entire first half of the 19th century.

Definition

We can define it as a school, movement, and flow. As a school, it had a manifesto in the preface of the book "Cromwell." It was important as a school in France. It was a literary and artistic movement, but there might be a flow because it razed everything and was in all the arts, philosophy, economics, politics, and even life itself.

Origins

The origins are Nordic; it began at once in Germany and England and immediately was in France, spreading from there to the rest of Europe.

Characteristics

1. Lyricism: This comes from "lyrical," the lyre (a musical instrument that accompanied poetry in antiquity). Lyricism is a very subjective

Impressionism

The Impressionists sought to create evocative atmospheres and impressions through the use of harmonies and new combinations of timbres. Claude Debussy composed pieces like The Sea and Clouds. Maurice Ravel, combining the magical sounds obtained from instruments, wrote Bolero for orchestra.

Atonal Music

Atonal is a form of composition based on the free choice of notes and chords. Arnold Schoenberg composed music getting away from the rules of tonality.

Twelve-tone Music

Twelve-tone composition uses a twelve-tone chromatic scale freely, but without repeating any note until all others have been heard.

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky began composing music for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He composed The Rite of Spring, which premiered in... Continue reading "Impressionism to Electronic Music: Evolution of 20th Century Music" »

Lyric Poetry: Expressing Emotions and Feelings

Lyric is a literary genre in which the author conveys feelings, emotions, or sentiments about a person or object of inspiration.

Hyperbole: Definition and Usage

Hyperbole, from the Greek word ὑπερβολή (excess), is a figure of speech consisting of an exaggerated and intentional alteration of the reality being represented (a situation, characteristic, or attitude), either by excess (aúxesis) or by default (tapínosis). Hyperbole aims to achieve greater expressiveness.

Poetry: Definition and Historical Context

Poetry (from the Greek word ποίησις 'creation' < ποιέω = "create") is a kind of literary genre. It is also framed as a mode of textual expression (this is as a type of text)

The Walker "Lied No. 1 Cycle" La Bella Molinera.

Rhythm

Rhythm is a binary rhythm, regular and constant in quadruple time, whose unit is a quarter note. Speed display does not figure in German and in Italian, reflecting the assertion that German Romanticism was doing one's own culture. The equivalent would be a mässig Geschwind Allegro moderato, is moderately fast. In his left hand, continuous eighth-note rhythm breaks whose function is to emphasize the rhythm, which, together with the incessant bustle of sixteenths on the right, suggests the purposeful stride of a person walking briskly. Although the pace is easy, worth noting the slight rhythmic counterpoint introducing the right hand section A, since the introduction, the two notes forming... Continue reading "Schubert's "The Miller's Beautiful Daughter": Analysis" »

French Classical Drama

The theater became one of the major genres in European literature in the 16th century. During the Middle Ages, the first theatrical performances sprang from religious and secular matters.

The fifteenth century was an important step in the history of the theater. Dances of death became fashionable, and humanistic comedy also emerged with important Spanish works such as La Celestina by Fernando de Rojas. At the end of the sixteenth century, the fusion of popular and cultured theatrical trends led to the birth of national theaters in England, Spain, and France.

The theater in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became a mass spectacle, and plays reflected the life, feelings, and needs of the people.

Some theorists believed... Continue reading "French Classical Drama and Cervantes's Novel: Key Aspects" »

Schumann's "Träumerei" Analysis

Rhythm

The rhythm is quaternary (binary double), marked "C", compasillo, equivalent to 4/4 time. There is no tempo indication, but instead, a marking corresponding to a slow metronome or Molto Adagio. Schumann commonly used German instead of Italian for score indications. The title, Träumerei (Dream), suggests a slow movement. The pace is regular and steady, yet deliberately ambiguous because the melodic emphasis and cadences fall on the second (weak) part of the measure. This mechanism enhances the piece's tension and expressiveness.

Melody

Melody is the predominant element, conveying the poetic sense and sensitivity of the composition. It is a melody of regular and symmetrical proportions, structured in eight... Continue reading "Schumann's Träumerei: Analysis of Rhythm, Melody, and Form" »

Key Features of Romantic Music

• More expansive content in musical forms
• Rich modulations, harmonies, chromaticism, and dissonance
• Passionate and lyrical melodies remain important
• Greatly expanded orchestra, especially the horn section, with a complex and dense texture
• Unity of the work through new systems such as the leitmotif, the fixed idea, or ring systems (where a musical idea recurs)

Periods of Romanticism

From 1815 until the first decade of the twentieth century:

• Early Romanticism (1815-1848): A rebellious period, eager for freedom and novelty. Notable composers include Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin.
• High Romanticism (1848-1883): Characterized by symphonic poems and the music dramas of Wagner. Key figures include Liszt, Wagner, and